Austria’s SuchADegen(pictured), whose first name is Hannes, hit it big in the January 16 running of the PokerStars Sunday 500. In that tournament, he stared down fellow decorated PocketFiver Bryan bparis Paris heads-up and the two agreed on a chip chop that left $6,000 to play for. When the smoke cleared after holding down the lead when the deal was struck, Hannes brought home the gold and earned $67,000. For his part, Paris raked in a not-so-laughable $54,000.

Heads-up play between Hannes and Paris took all of 10 minutes and ended with Paris running A-8 into A-J for his last 26 big blinds. “He was the best player at the final table in my eyes,” Hannes said of Paris. “I have a huge respect for him, so I was cool with the chop. I’ve played with him before in several tournaments and it’s never good when he has chips and position. He’s aggressive and a good player.” Nearly 800 people entered and the final table also featured 40th ranked Rhys floppinhel Jones, who took third.

The PokerStars Sunday 500, which plays out every week and carries a $500 buy-in, was Hannes’ breakthrough poker score. What happens next is anyone’s guess. “I’ve had some good cashes before,” Hannes said of his career, “but those were staking-related, so it was really nice to ship such a huge tournament myself. I’m doing a longer vacation from February to March traveling through New Zealand, so I guess I’ll spend some money there and the rest will go straight to my savings account.”

The Austria pokercommunity is home to about 250 registered members of PocketFives. As Hannes said, he is headed halfway across the world to New Zealand to visit a friend, thus temporarily abandoning his homeland of Austria (pictured). They’ll next be seen traveling through the countryside sightseeing in one of the most beautiful places on the face of the Earth.

When he gets back from the land of the Kiwi, he’ll be faced with what will likely be a tough decision whether to play poker full-time or keep a job in the real world. He’s currently getting his Masters Degree in Management from FH IMC Krems in Austria, but is considering going abroad next semester to study near Macau. Perhaps not so coincidentally, there’s a boatload of gambling there as well.

Hannes got started in poker through home games with friends a few years ago. Then, he registered for a poker training site, HUSNG, and began his climb up the fabled poker ladder: “At first, poker was about the adrenaline rush, the chance to win big. I was a huge fish when I started playing online. After a year or so, I was tired of losing and really started working on my game. I bought a HUSNG account, got myself an MTT coach to review my sessions, and worked on my game to advance to the next level.”

“Poker is pretty big in Austria,” Hannes assessed. “We have a live series called CAPT, the Casinos Austria Poker Tour. There is a €2,000 Main Event that attracts about 150 to 225 players depending on the location. We also have two big private casinos that merged a few weeks ago. You can play cash games there 24/7.”

He wanted to extend a shout out to “all of my supporters who railed the final table and cheered for me.” We’re sure the support contributed to his success down the stretch.

Austria is #13 worldwide in the PocketFives Country Poker Rankingsand has a combined PLB score of its top 20 members of 73,026. Its top ranked player is Schildy1984, who sits at #7 worldwide, and the nation has seven Triple Crown titles.

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